Monarch establish their base and create 150 jobs

Employment turbulence created by recent reshuffle at East Midlands Airport (EMA).

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The consequences of British Airways’s purchase of BMI from Lufthansa in April 2012 will begin to show over the next few weeks. The final bmibaby flight from EMA will take place on September 9th, following which, bmibaby’s base at Castle Donington will close and around 340 people will lose their jobs.

However, Monarch Airlines are currently planning a serious expansion within the East Midlands area which could see 150 jobs being created by next summer. In what Brad Miller, Managing Director of EMA has called a ‘huge boost’ for the airport, Monarch Airline’s Managing Director, Kevin George, said that more staff would be needed in 2013.

George expressed how

‘in the short term, we have a very limited number of posts but next summer we will need at least 150 posts, particularly for cabin crew, that we would be able to recruit from the local area as we establish our base at East Midlands.’

This is a promising forecast for the East Midlands region, whose unemployment levels for the last quarter (April – June 2012) stood at 8.3% according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Miller has stated how

“This is a really strong reflection of what Monarch thinks about the catchment area and the region”

suggesting that things could be on the up, up, up and away in the next twelves months for EMA.

Monarch currently fly throughout Europe with some flights to the United States, the Caribbean, India and Africa. With headquarters at Luton Airport, current staff figures stand at just under 2,000, suggesting that an employment expansion of 150 is a fairly substantial increase. Kevin George quantified this notion, stating that

“It is early days and we need to be very careful we don’t over-expand but we will fly to a whole raft of leisure destinations across Europe and there is the potential for us to develop new routes in the future.”

Monarch seem to be solid within the current economic climate, and it could be worth keeping an eye on the region over the next twelve months. The summer may be drawing to a close, but this time next year, 150 new recruits could be off on their jolly holidays, bearing in mind of course that the exits out of unemployment in the East Midlands are located here, here, here and here.

 

Olivia Dean

20th August 2012

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Posted by Olivia Dean on August 20, 2012

http://newstatesmanjobs.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/monarch-establish-their-base-and-create-150-jobs/